Chapter 5:
Rene awoke in the unfamiliar hotel bed, blinking a few times as he recalled an odd, feverish dream he'd had. It was slowly slipping from his memory, but he could vaguely remember stabbing someone in the back...
He turned to look at his son, who slept beside him on top of the sheets. John slept in the other bed, while Ferguson had been content to sleep on the couch (this wasn't the first time he'd slept on a couch, and it certainly wouldn't be the last). It was still dark out, and all was silent.
Rene felt uncomfortably warm all of the sudden, so he clambered out of the bed and headed for the bathroom, hoping a cold shower would help.
As he stood beneath the stream of water, he became aware of an odd substance covering his face. At first, he brushed it off as nothing, but it seemed to become heavier and heavier until it felt as though a wet sock had been put over his head. He could still breathe and see, but those things brought little comfort as he shut the water off and staggered out of the shower to see what was going on.
He froze when he noticed his reflection: he appeared to be wearing some kind of mask, a red one with large holes cut out for the mouth and eyes. Confused, Rene touched it as if it would bite him. "Qu'est-ce que c'est?"
He tried to pull it off, wondering if maybe this was his son playing a prank on him, but to his horror, the mask wouldn't come off. He dug his nails in desperately, tugging until he jerked his hands away and let out a pained yelp. The moment he saw the blood staining his fingernails, he realized that this mask had fused to his skin.
Feeling panicked, his breathing quickened as he continued to wrestle with the mask's fabric, his nails cutting his skin and drawing blood. When he looked in the mirror and noticed the copious amount of blood dripping to his chest, he could do nothing except hyperventilate and try to figure out what was happening.
A pair of cold, hard hands grabbed his shoulders from behind, and a deep voice said, "You're awake now, Spy,"
He yelped and writhed, fighting to get away. "Get away from me!"
"Dad! Dad, what's the problem!?"
Rene didn't even know it was his son, so he flew open a nearby cabinet and retrieved a pair of shears. He grabbed the collar of his son's shirt and shoved him against the wall, raising the shears high.
"Dad, stop it!"
Rene halted, finally realizing what he was doing. Quivering, he released his son and laid the shears down, sputtering out, "I-I need your help!" he pointed to his face. "It won't come off-"
"What won't come off?" the boy still kept a good distance from his father, staring at him in concern. "Your skin?"
Rene looked towards the mirror, coming to the jarring conclusion that the whole thing had been a hallucination. Strange images flashed in his brain, ones that seemed all too familiar.
"Why the hell did you attack me?"
"I-I-" Rene swallowed, leaning against the wall. "I...I'm sorry," he hesitated, then reached out and touched his son's shoulder. "I would never hurt you, Scout,"
It took a moment for Scout to realize what his father had said, and when he did, he couldn't help but recoil a bit. "Oh, my God," There was a long pause, and Scout leaned forward slightly to look his father in the eyes. "...Spy?"
"Yes?" came the response, shaky and low.
"What's going on in here!?" John stopped in the doorway, observing the situation: Rene was naked and soaking wet, while Dylan stood next to him wearing nothing except an old pair of sweatpants with the word 'juicy' written across the back (Ferguson had bought them for him, as a joke). John acted on his first instinct and fetched a bathrobe for Rene to wear. "Cover yourself, mate!"
As Rene quickly slipped the robe on, John asked again, "What's going on?"
"I-I'm not even sure," Rene shakily grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with water, downing the liquid. "Bushman- I mean, John- can you get me my vape pen?"
John furrowed his brow, tilting his head in confusion before turning to leave. "Sure thing. Hey, kid, can we talk?"
Scout gave his father a quick glance before following John into the room's living area. "What's up?"
"What did you do?" John wanted to know, his voice a hushed, accusatory tone. "Did you say something to him?"
"I didn't say shit! He remembered on his own,"
John fished the vape pen out of Rene's briefcase and began to fill it. "Remembered what?"
Scout mentally rehearsed what he was about to say (something he didn't always do), and then took a breath. "John, you ain't gonna believe me, but a hundred years ago, we all worked together as these, uh, mercenaries, and-and you were a Sniper!"
"Ha!" John clicked the pen together. "'course I was, boy. Lemme guess- Ferguson was some kinda demolition man?"
"Uh..." Scout's mouth fell open. "That's...pretty much what he was, yeah,"
John headed back to the bathroom and handed Rene his pen. "Here, take a nice breath from this,"
Rene gladly obliged, sucking on his pen and breathing out a cloud of vapor. "Ah...many thanks," he set the pen on the edge of the sink and ran a hand through his peppered hair. "What time is it?"
Scout looked at the clock on the wall. "Three AM,"
"Agh," Rene sighed, gathering his clothes. "I must return to bed, and so should you two,"
"Right," John gestured to Scout. "Come on, boy, let your father get dressed,"
A few minutes later, the bathroom door opened again, and Rene made his way towards the bed. He flopped down beside Scout, and they both stared at the ceiling in silence for what felt like an eternity.
"Dad," Scout rolled over to look at his father. "Do you...remember being Spy? Like, do you-"
"Yes," Rene replied, closing his eyes. "I do. I don't know how, but I do. Go to sleep,"
"Okay," Scout turned away, but only for a moment. He rolled back over. "In the morning, we gotta start looking for Medic. He's-"
"I said go to sleep," Rene growled, burying his face in the pillow. "It's too late for this, Scout- Dylan- whoever you are,"
Scout shifted onto his front, but his mind couldn't stop reeling. Yeah...whoever I am.
The sun came up a few hours later. At 7 AM, a group of Overwatch members boarded a private bus to Nature's Gate.
Nature's Gate was a place the public had come to fear, a place shrouded in mystery. Once, it had been a rural farming community, but the Omnic Crisis had left it abandoned and mostly in ruin. Due to the absence of humans, nature began to take over, and the empty houses and barns were now covered in moss as well as other plant life. Wild animals of all kinds could be seen running around, so for a while, it was a popular tourist attraction.
That all changed when reports of feral humans began coming in. Stories of mentally disturbed people living in the abandoned houses were posted to the internet and all over the media, and at first, everyone wondered if it was a hoax. It proved not to be, and after a group of college students went missing there, Nature's Gate became mysterious hellhole in the public eye.
Since then, there had been more reports of these wild people, or 'Nomads', as they'd been named. They were described as violent, cannibalistic, and according to some encounter stories, they possessed strange abilities. Despite all this, no extensive research had been done here. Perhaps everyone thought it was best to leave the Nomads alone.
Everyone except Overwatch, that is.
The bus slowed down on the side of the road, the GPS voice announcing, "Now arriving at Nature's Gate,"
Genji Shimada was the first to step out, stopping for a moment to take in the scenery.
"It's very beautiful, here," he mused aloud. "Nature just took back an entire village like it was nothing,"
"Yeah," Jesse McCree stepped out from behind him, squinting into the distance. "Too bad there's cannibals an' shit,"
Jack Morrison prodded both of them with part of his gun. "All right, you two, move it along! Can't stand here all day," He looked over his shoulder back into the bus. "C'mon, ladies!"
"I've asked you before not to call us 'ladies'," Pharah sighed, but Jack wasn't listening. She gestured to Tracer. "Let's go, Lena,"
"Coming!" chirped Tracer, grabbing her gun and following the others.
Nature's Gate was the perfect mix of unsettling and beautiful. The ghostly farm village covered in moss, plants, and thorns stood still and silent beneath the blue sky, the cry of wildlife from the thicket the only background sound.
"All right, Nomads," Jack muttered under his breath, his gun clutched safely in his hand as he looked into a bush. "Where are you hiding?"
Tracer wandered around in the grass, sticking close to her teammates. She looked thoughtfully towards a farmhouse, and wondered, "What if they're living in those houses? Like normal people?"
"Don't see how they're gettin' in," McCree stepped towards a house, looking at the door. "The door on this one's rusted shut,"
"The houses all look generally undisturbed," Pharah agreed. A nearby barn caught her attention. "Hey- that barn door's been opened,"
Jack turned around at that, and he motioned for Genji and Tracer to follow him. "Come on, we're checking the barn,"
Tracer started to follow the group, only to halt when something caught her eye: the face of a child peered out from the upstairs window of a farmhouse, and they closed the curtain when they saw Tracer looking at them.
"Hey-!" Tracer almost called out to her comrades, but they were several feet away at the barn. She knew she was supposed to follow the others, yet she couldn't ignore what she'd seen. It couldn't hurt to look, could it? And if she'd imagined the face, then it was just an honest mistake.
She approached the front door, seeing the moss that covered it. Cautiously, she tugged on the handle, surprised when it opened and tore the curtain of moss. Taking a breath, she entered.
Meanwhile, the others were met with a horrific smell when they opened the door.
"Ugh, what is that!?" Pharah made a face and covered her nose and mouth. "It smells like rotten meat!"
"Maybe it's dead cattle?" McCree suggested, looking around as they walked in further.
"Nope," Genji's voice was thick as he kept his gun close to his side. "I know that smell. There's a corpse in here,"
A hush fell over them. Everyone exchanged a nervous glance, and Jack took a breath. "Well...I guess we gotta find it,"
Tracer made her way through the farmhouse, taking in the surroundings while trying to stay silent. It was mostly empty, but it was clear someone had been in here recently. A bag of vegetables sat on the dining table, and they seemed fresh.
"Hello?" Tracer called, trying not to sound nervous. Her fingers tightened on the gun when the floorboards creaked beneath her feet. "Is there anyone in here?"
No response. Tracer trodded up the stairs as quietly as possible, glancing over her shoulder. This was the second time this week she'd ventured through an abandoned building, and hopefully this time she wouldn't find a kid dying of heatstroke here...
She pushed open the door to the room she'd seen the child's face in, and there was no one. An ominous thudding from inside the wall broke the silence, and Tracer's heart jumped. "Hello?" she asked again, pressing her ear against the wall. "Who's there?"
Once again, no one answered, and Tracer began to think of the others and how they didn't know where she was. Rather than pursuing the matter any further, she headed for the exit.
In the barn, Pharah had been the one to locate the corpse. It was under a bale of hay, and when she found it, she uttered a "Holy shit!" and stumbled back in surprise.
"What!?" Jack looked over her shoulder, only to turn away immediately. "Oh, my God...I've never seen anything like this before,"
McCree had to look, wincing. "Yikes. Looks like this guy got chomped on by the Nomads,"
"Hey!" a voice called from the doorway. It was Tracer. "What'd you find?"
"Lena, where have you been!?" Jack snapped.
Tracer put her hands up. "I swear, I didn't get into any trouble, Morrison! I-"
Before she could continue, a hail of loud gunshots boomed from the house Tracer had just been in, and the group sprung into action.
They fired back at the attackers, although no one could really tell which part of the house the bullets were coming from. After about six minutes, Genji finally sprinted to the door and broke it down, rushing inside. Almost right away, the gunshots stopped and there was a loud thumping within the walls. Acting accordingly, Genji stabbed his blade into the wall three times.
He looked into the holes he made, seeing a few drops of splattered blood on the wood. He touched the blood, looking at it and realizing that he must have nicked someone.
McCree came running in, panting, "Well!? Did you catch 'em!?"
"No," Genji answered, pointing to the wall. "I know where they went, though. And we have some DNA evidence,"
Outside, Tracer breathlessly finished explaining to Jack and Pharah what she'd seen in the house. "I-I swear, I didn't see anyone!"
Pharah and Jack exchanged a look, and Jack cleared his throat. "Lena, you shouldn't have gone in by yourself-"
"I know," Tracer nodded. "But at least we know where they are!"
Pharah rubbed her chin in thought. "Hm...if they're not using the doors to get in, then...they must have some type of underground system,"
"I heard thumping in the walls," Tracer piped up. "Maybe the tunnels go through there?"
"Maybe," Jack pulled out his phone, dialing a number. "Stick around- I gotta call someone to pick up the body,"